Climate of the Past (CP) is an international scientific journal dedicated to the publication and discussion of research articles, short communications, and review papers on the climate history of the Earth. CP covers all temporal scales of climate change and variability, from geological time through to multidecadal studies of the last century. Studies focusing mainly on present and future climate are not within scope.

To facilitate the publication procedure for authors from Helsinki University, Copernicus Publications and Helsinki University Library have signed an agreement on a central billing of article processing charges (APCs).

To facilitate the publication procedure for authors from Helsinki University, Copernicus Publications and Helsinki University Library have signed an agreement on a central billing of article processing charges (APCs).

Data underpinning any research finding should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) – not only for humans, but also for machines. Therefore, Copernicus Publications requests that such data are available upon publication of an article.

Data underpinning any research finding should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) – not only for humans, but also for machines. Therefore, Copernicus Publications requests that such data are available upon publication of an article.

Past cold ice age temperatures and the subsequent warming towards the Holocene had large consequences for soil organic carbon (SOC) stored in perennially frozen grounds. Using an Earth system model we show how the spread in areas affected by permafrost have changed under deglacial warming, along with changes in SOC accumulation. Our model simulations suggest phases of circum-Arctic permafrost SOC gain and losses, with a net increase in SOC between the last glacial maximum and the pre-industrial.

Climate of Granada (southern Spain) during the first third of the 18th century is reconstructed. Results suggest that climatic conditions were similar to those of the first decades of the 20th century, when the global warming signal was of less importance than today. In addition, the manuscript presents the instrumental data taken in Granada the year 1729, probably the first instrumental meteorological data recorded in Spain. Some extreme events, as the cold wave of the winter 1729, are studied.

A long standing question in climate science is concerned with which processes contributed to the increase in atmospheric CO2 after the last ice age. From the range of possible processes we try to constrain the change in carbon storage in the land biosphere. By combining ice-core and marine sediment data in a modeling framework we show that the carbon storage in the land biosphere increased largely after the last ice age. This will help to further understand processes at work in the Earth system.

The cause of the rapid warming events documented in proxy records across the Northern Hemisphere during the last glacial has been a long-standing puzzle in paleo-climate research. Here we use high resolution ice core data from to cores in Greenland to investigate the progression during the onset of these events on muti-annual time scales to test their plausible triggers. We show that atmospheric circulation changes preceded the warming in Greenland and the collapse of the sea ice by a decade.

The 4.2 ka event between 4.2 and 3.9 ka has been widely discussed in the Northern Hemsiphere but less reported in the Southern Hemisphere. Here, we use speleothem records from Rodrigues in the southwestern Indian Ocean spanning from 6000 to 3000 years ago to investigate the regional hydro-climatic variability. Our records show no evidence for an unusual climate anomaly between 4.2 and 3.9 ka. Instead, it shows a multi-centennial drought between 3.9 and 3.5 ka.

A data-based reconstruction of carbon-bearing deep-sea sediment shows significant changes in the global burial rate over the last glacial cycle. We calculate the impact of these deep-sea changes, as well as hypothetical changes in continental shelf burial and volcanic outgassing. Our results imply that these geological fluxes had a significant impact on ocean chemistry and the global carbon isotopic ratio, and that the natural carbon cycle was not in steady state during the Holocene.

The last glacial period was characterized by a number of rapid climate changes seen, for example, as abrupt warmings in Greenland and changes in monsoon rainfall intensity. However, due to chronological uncertainties it is challenging to know how tightly coupled these changes were. Here we exploit cosmogenic signals caused by changes in the Sun and Earth magnetic fields to link different climate archives and improve our understanding of the dynamics of abrupt climate change.

We measured biomarker production over a year in a small inland lake in the northeastern USA. Understanding biomarkers in the modern environment helps us improve reconstructions of past climate from lake sediment records. We use these results to interpret a 900-year decadally resolved temperature record from this lake. Our record highlights multi-decadal oscillations in temperature superimposed on a long-term cooling trend, providing novel insight into climate dynamics of the region.

In the context of a warming climate, mountain environments are especially vulnerable to a change in the risk pattern. Our study focuses on the past evolution of wet avalanches, likely triggered by warmer temperatures destabilizing the snow cover. In the last 3300 years we observed an increase of wet avalanche occurrence related to human activities, intensifying pressure on forest cover, as well as favorable climate conditions such as warmer temperatures coinciding with retreating glacier phases.